Description:I had a five-day business trip to Tonsberg, Norway. While walking around the town, lo and behold I found the Tonga Bar! Tonsberg is a relatively small town of about 10,000 people about an hour and a half south of Oslo. Apparently it is a really big summer vacation spot for Norwegians. Since I was there in the off-season (end of January) there really weren't too many people around.

While I was there, the bar was never open. I spoke to one of the bartenders in the Harbor Café below, and he told me that during winter months it was open on Friday and Saturday evenings. I was able to stretch my business trip to leave Saturday, but Friday night they did not open the bar. Still, I was allowed to go upstairs and take pictures.

The bartenders told me that the owner was a woman and she had decorated the bar. They did not make any specialty drinks for the Tonga bar nor did they use any tiki mugs. (Actually, the bartender told me that strawberry daiquiris are very popular in the summertime).

Anyways, as you can see from the pictures, it's fairly well done for a small modern bar. I would love to hear a report from our Norwegian ohana when it is open and operating!

Sorry bout the low quality pics. I bought a disposable after seeing this place. You can’t tell from the pics, but it was nice low lighting, lots of bamboo and tapa, authentic items, as well as locally made (look at the square structural columns).

Wow! What a great find! Thanks so much for putting so much effort into documenting it to share. It looks great. I noticed the sign advertising the New Orleans pianist was in English -- how common is it to see all-English signage there?

Yes, the Norwegians (sp?) all spoke excellent English. Once again I was reminded how ignorant Americans are by the fact that everywhere I travel, everyone else speaks multiple languages, and I can only stumble my way to another beer (Ringnes!).

In addition to the points Virani made, I understand that Brits like to take vacation in Norway, so a lot of their tourist industry is geared towards them, so many people speak English.

Because they use the same letters as the English language... all the signs were in English, just different phonetics. For example, if you can see in this photo, there's a store in the middle with signs saying "Spill Her! Spill Her!" Perferct English!

So.... a montage of first impressions of Scandanavia....
Snow
Open-faced sandwiches
Blondes
Brunettes! (the big surprise for me)
For kids... Speed Metal!
And milk with EVERY meal

Norway was beautiful, I would encourage anyone who has a chance to visit.

Well I recently had an opportunity to spend some more time in Tonsberg, Norway again and got a little more information.

The Tonga Bar is situated on top of the Harbour Café Sports Bar. The Harbor Café Sports Bar is a chain in Norway. The other locations are in Kristiansand and Bergen. Each of them has a third-floor Tonga bar and is similarly decorated. So, Kong-Tiki’s photo link must’ve been from this same chain.

These are definitely sports bars. Bad karaoke and rap music all night in the lower floors, with the music “selectively” pumped in upstairs. I did not get to see “George Keys with all 10 on the 88s" like I was hoping. No specialty drinks. No fruit juices. They only open the bar up there from midnight to 2am. You can’t even go up to relax before the place gets busy.

Yes there is a Tonga bar in Tønsberg... but it's actualy a franchised copy of the one in Bergen.
Tonga Bar Bergen has been around for a little over 6 years now, and is regarded as one of the best cocktailbars in Bergen. It's located just across from the famus fish marked in Bergen.

For those of you who wanna have a look: http:\\www.tongabar.com
the site is run by the two main bartenders at Tonga Bar and are an addition to the offical one at http:\\www.planetbergen.no

the first site is in norwegian (all pages) and english (ca 75% of the pages as of speaking - soon 100%)
the second site is norwegian only.

another fun fact: Only 3 bartenders work at the bar... one from Norway, one from New Zeeland and one from Scotland.

On 2006-05-27 21:58, Kilikopela wrote:Well I recently had an opportunity to spend some more time in Tonsberg, Norway again and got a little more information.

The Tonga Bar is situated on top of the Harbour Café Sports Bar. The Harbor Café Sports Bar is a chain in Norway. The other locations are in Kristiansand and Bergen. Each of them has a third-floor Tonga bar and is similarly decorated. So, Kong-Tiki’s photo link must’ve been from this same chain.

These are definitely sports bars. Bad karaoke and rap music all night in the lower floors, with the music “selectively” pumped in upstairs. I did not get to see “George Keys with all 10 on the 88s" like I was hoping. No specialty drinks. No fruit juices. They only open the bar up there from midnight to 2am. You can’t even go up to relax before the place gets busy.

Once again I have to disagree... Speaking for the one in Bergen...
There is no sports, karaoke or sutch neither at the Harbour Cafe in the first two floors, nor at the Tonga Bar.

Tonga Bar aims to provide a unique quality of service, free from the attitude and pretensions found in so many other bars in Norway. Their cocktail menue represents both classic and contemporary mixes using a diversity of quality spirits, fresh fruit and juices that compliment every season.

they have a signature drink; Frozen Daiquiri where you choose the flavor (strawberry most pop.) and althoug many bars in Bergen serves that drink, Tonga are the only one who uses fresh fruit.

Other drinks on the menue are usual drinks that you find most places, but with the Tonga twist.
And not to forget: their orginal drinks that has earned them praises and fame from the people in Bergen, as well as in the Nationals and other competitions...